I sat quietly for a moment, holding a book in my hand.
The Demon King and the Headmaster seemed to be talking, their lips moving, but I couldn’t hear anything at all.
Bright light filled my vision, and I gradually began to lose the sensation in my body.
When I came to my senses, I was standing on a pure white cloud.
The sun was shining fiercely in the sky, but it didn’t feel hot or warm at all.
It was like being in a dream.
A large shadow passed over me, and a pure white dragon appeared before me.
“Who are you?”
“I am one who has already died, so I have no name.”
The white dragon transformed into a human-like form and stood in front of me.
With long, beautiful hair as white as snow, piercingly cold blue eyes looked down at me.
“You are my child.”
“Are you my mother?”
She shook her head.
“Before we faced our annihilation, we created you with the wishes of all.”
“Annihilation? Not extinction?”
“It seems the later generations are not aware. We were annihilated.”
She looked at me with very sad eyes and gently stroked my head.
It was clear that this was not an act of affection.
Fragments of her memories rushed into my mind like shards.
I saw the scene of a black entity transforming into a dragon and brutally slaughtering other dragons.
“Ah…”
“You have the duty to bear the future of our race.”
When she placed her hand on my chest, a strong light permeated me.
“It is no coincidence that you hold the book we left behind; it is fate.”
“What must I do?”
“You must kill that monster.”
The monster from her memories had killed the dragon in one bite.
“Can I really kill it?”
“That is why I have left you with power. You already possess one of them.”
A branch appeared in front of me.
The branch that had fallen from the olive tree when I first crossed over to Roran.
“That contains power. Of course, it depends on how you use it.”
“There are more than just this one, right?”
“There are three more. You will come to possess that power.”
Her figure began to fade and disappear.
“Time is up. Your enemy is neither human, nor demon, nor god. It is Olog. Be sure to deal with that one who sleeps deeper than hell.”
With those words, I felt a sensation of plummeting downward.
When I came to my senses, I was sitting on a sofa in the Headmaster’s office at the Academy.
“Ririan? Can’t you read?”
“No.”
As the Demon King reached out to take the book again, I closed it and tucked it under my arm.
“Um, I’m sorry, but may I keep this book?”
Hearing my words, the Headmaster nodded with an unconcerned expression.
“It might be better if you keep it. It’s a book written by dragons.”
Did the dragons who wrote this book expect that I would see it someday?
Olog.
The name of the monster that mercilessly slaughtered dragons in the memories of the white dragon.
Though currently asleep, when it awakens, the world will surely descend into ruin.
After the story ended, the Headmaster handed us a piece of paper and told us to go there.
“It’s a store that sells our Academy uniforms.”
“It’s not custom-tailored, then.”
“No. Custom-tailored ones are expensive.”
After leaving the Academy, I decided to stop by the store selling uniforms first.
Interestingly, the Demon King guided us, making it easy to find the store.
“Have you been here before?”
“I lived here for a while.”
She couldn’t have lived there for just a short time.
The streets of Sarita were enough to confuse even Aila slightly.
The Demon King guided us through the complicated streets with pinpoint accuracy.
When we entered the store, various clothes were displayed on mannequins.
“Welcome.”
Showing the paper handed to us by the Headmaster, the store owner took the measuring tape and paper.
“Let’s take some measurements.”
Not flashy, but with quick hands, the store owner finished measuring us and went into a storage room behind the register.
A while later, the store owner returned with six uniforms.
Looking at the measured sizes, she distributed them to each of us.
“Oh, I won’t need one.”
Aila returned the uniform, saying she wasn’t a student.
“Thank goodness. I was worried it wouldn’t fit you.”
The owner’s gaze was openly fixed on Aila’s upper body.
Though the owner was a woman, Aila, feeling uncomfortable, discreetly covered her upper body with her arm.
“Why aren’t you giving yours to me?”
“I’ll just wear it as is.”
The cost of the uniforms would be covered by the Academy for the first year.
However, there were four new students and five uniforms.
“One person’s price is short…”
As the store owner looked troubled, the Demon King pulled out silver coins from her pocket.
“Thank you.”
Taking the silver coins, the store owner smiled for the first time and saw us off.
All our errands for the day were now complete.
We then divided into two groups: one to return to the hotel, and another to explore the city further.
Aila, Dahlia, and Catherine were in the group returning to the hotel.
Jema, the Demon King, and I were in the group exploring the city.
In truth, my objective was to find the library in this city.
Once the hotel group left, I asked the Demon King for guidance in the city.
“Where do you want to go?”
“To the library.”
“There are three libraries here.”
“Let’s go to the biggest one.”
The Demon King led the way, with Jema and me following behind.
Jema looked at the book tucked under my arm and asked what it was.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Hey? Ririan, your fangs…”
Jema pulled my mouth open to check my fangs.
“Why? I have all my fangs.”
“No, they’ve grown really sharp. They didn’t used to be like this?”
With a curious expression, Jema observed my fangs, while the Demon King also approached to see inside my mouth.
“Indeed. Ririan’s fangs have become really sharp. Don’t you think you could bite through stone?”
“Who even bites stone?”
“I do sometimes.”
It’s ridiculous to bite stone without being out of your mind.
I couldn’t understand why someone would chew on stones, but the Demon King likely said it because she had tried it herself.
The library, our destination, was located quite a distance from the city center.
I had expected a bit since it was the biggest one, but the tall building looked very out of place.
“What kind of library is in a building like this?”
“This isn’t a place where ordinary people borrow books.”
“Then?”
“You’ll understand once you go inside.”
Following the leading Demon King, we entered the building.
There was no reception desk, which was always visible at the entrance of buildings, and a spacious interior space awaited us.
In the center of the building was a circular reception desk, and the ceiling was very high.
The sign indicated that the first to fourth floors contained general books.
From the upper floors, it seemed that books requiring history or specialized knowledge were stored.
“How many floors?”
“I’m going to the 7th floor.”
Jema said she would go to the 7th floor.
The 7th floor was where the magic-related books were.
“I’ll check out the 5th floor first.”
I chose the 5th floor since the sign indicated it contained historical records.
Taking the elevator, we arrived on the 5th floor alongside the Demon King.
“I’ll wait on the first floor when you’re done.”
“Got it.”
There were a fair number of people on the first floor, but the 5th floor had hardly any, just a handful of people.
“What are you trying to find?”
“I’m looking to see if there are any records related to dragons.”
“There probably aren’t any.”
“How do you know that? Ah.”
The Demon King had been searching for dragons for much longer than I had.
As someone who was fully aware of the geography of this city, the Demon King wouldn’t have missed investigating such details in the library.
“Hmm. Still, let’s look just in case.”
“This place has records from roughly a thousand years ago, so it won’t be useful to look. If you’re going to search, look over there.”
The displayed books seemed to be categorized chronologically.
With the Demon King’s help, I pulled a few books from the shelf and quickly skimmed through them.
“Why are you researching dragons, anyway?”
I contemplated whether to tell the Demon King about what had happened in the Headmaster’s office.
“Do you know why dragons went extinct?”
“Well, I’ve tried looking into it, but…”
While the world was said to have been populated by dragons, I had heard about their annihilation.
They had been massacred by someone.
If there were records of such events, the Demon King likely wouldn’t have harbored any questions.
“Have you read all the books here?”
“No. Most of the content is boring and outdated.”
Records related to dragons seemed to exist two or three volumes even from two thousand years ago.
The contents written in those were shockingly crude.
Records about Mana Hearts or finding dragon skin fragments.
As I continued to sift back through the ages, I found a book from five thousand years ago, but I couldn’t read the letters.
“I can’t read this.”
“Here, try to follow me.”
The Demon King taught me a magic spell on the spot.
A spell that allows reading languages that are impossible to decipher.
Of course, not just anyone could read any text using this.
“I can’t read, but Ririan should be able to.”
When the Demon King opened a tome that even she couldn’t read with magic, the contents quickly flowed into my mind.
“Why can I read this?”
“Perhaps it’s because the knowledge of dragons is within you.”
Though I couldn’t understand, the people of this world had organized their records and left them in books.
From the Demon King’s perspective, the letters written in this book were no different from images.
If there’s a translated character notation left, it might be possible to study based on that, but it seems I’m the only one capable of deciphering text from five thousand years ago.
“So, what does it say?”
“It says there were many battles. Between demons and humans, and the heavens?”
“It must have been an interesting world.”
The Demon King had a unique perspective.
The titles of the old books appeared translated in my eyes.
Among them, one title stood out prominently.
The thickness of the book was only about half of that of the other books, and it was much smaller in size.
Had it been nestled among other books, it would have caught the eye first, but it was slightly elevated and probably didn’t attract much attention.
I grabbed a pedestal and pulled the book out to properly check its name.
Transaction Records with Dragons.
